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Local-owned Gorilla Lemonade captures fresh lemon, blueberry, pineapple and strawberry all in a bottle.

Brian Burkett-Thompson and Kristen Threatt, the founders of New Haven business Eat Up Catering, recently launched the fresh fruit flavored lemonade brand. The drink has been met with an overwhelmingly positive reception.

“It actually took off quicker than what we expected,” Burkett-Thompson said. “I see a big future for the lemonade, just to be a mainstream drink out here. That’s the purpose. It’s gonna be doing it. Bring some community and make it a global and international phenomenon, that way, all over got a little taste of New Haven.”

The duo opened their catering business in 2019, with Burkett-Thompson, a Cook’s Helper in Commons and a chef at Eat Up Catering, contributing his culinary experience and Threatt contributing his marketing skills.

The pair also runs the Eat Up Foundation, a non-profit organization whose goal is “to work with the people and organizations in our local community to help feed those in need,” according to their website. Threatt said their work includes giving back to children for school, giving back to senior centers, feeding the homeless for Thanksgiving and giving them gift bags for Christmas. 

“Before we even started the business, we wanted to do things to change community lives and that was the first and foremost thing,” Burkett-Thompson said. “Then we jumped into having our own business.”

Burkett-Thompson, whose brother is also a chef, was inspired by his father, another chef, who passed away in 2014. He hopes to inspire a new generation, especially those who might not have a goal, to “do what [they] are good at.”

Threatt moved to New Haven in 2012 during what he described as a “rough patch in [his] life.” He said that he made changes in his life and now hopes to inspire others to do the same.

“It’s the idea that most guys want to be basketball players, football players … and not a lot of them are saying that they want to be cooks,” Threatt said. “But we create a wave where we make it so dope to the point where we have clothing, food, drinks and doing community work all mixed in together, you know?”

Threatt said that children will not forget the community work they are doing and will want to grow up to do so as well.

According to Threatt, the two of them originally wanted to make a drink because of community requests for them to serve drinks with their food at Eat Up, as they did not want to serve commercial sodas or soft drinks. 

“They love lemonade,” Burkett-Thompson said. “I mean, to the point that like I got people personally calling me for their own packages of lemonade — 24 here, 40 over there — and these are people at their own house that want these 40 lemonades. So they showed great support.“

The pair originally came up with the idea, Threatt said, for a gorilla-themed brand as a sort-of joke because Burkett-Thompson is a “very hairy dude,” and they wanted to impart his traits into the drink and branding. Yet the brand name has come to symbolically mean more.

Threatt explained that as two Black men, they had to choose to “define what gorilla means” in order to avoid any negative connotations or stereotypes. He looked it up and decided to use a gorilla in a way that symbolized “surprising strength, intelligence and gentleness.”

Their lemonade is currently carried at five locations — including 96 Howe St. and Petals Market at 100 Ashmun St. According to Threatt, more than 3000 bottles have been sold since their debut at the end of March. 

Yasmyn Ursini, an employee at Petals Market, said that they sold out in the first two weeks of carrying the product, after “a lot of people saw it in newspapers and Instagram.” Although she is not sure if they will restock the product, she said many people have been asking for it and believes there is a good chance they will.

“The goal for us is to get [our lemonade] into Yale University,” Threatt said. “We would love to have our drink in Yale University for college kids because the college kids are the culture. They are going to school, getting an education and everything, so we want them to have some real refreshing drinks.”

Burkett-Thompson said that as a culinary employee for the University, he notices the students get tired of the same drinks and hopes to be able to bring something of his own to diversify those options.

A bottle of Gorilla Lemonade costs $3.